'The Signal' gives off seriously creepy vibes

Had Stanley Kubrick and David Lynch made a movie together, it might have looked something like The Signal.

Visually stunning, emotionally stunted and weird as all get-out, this sci-fi tale (**1/2 stars out of four, rated PG-13, opens limited Friday) isn't worthy of the canon of either master of disturbing imagery. But Signal thinks big, takes chances and has enough arresting scenes to stand apart from the science fiction films of late.

Brenton Thwaites (Maleficent) plays Nic, a handsome college student whose nemesis is a hacker who taunts him from a hideout in Nevada.

During a cross-country trip with girlfriend Haley (Olivia Cooke) and Jonah (Beau Knapp), Nic decides to drop in on his nerd-doppelganger, though it's never made clear why. To beat him up? Post menacing tweets?

If anything, Signal's first half-hour is nearly its undoing, as director William Eubank has our college trio walking through the source of the e-mails, an empty shack straight from The Blair Witch Project — along with grainy video to make it all look creepy. The set-up is so preposterous, Signal briefly resembles a parody of found-footage films.

But when Nic and Jonah awaken in a stark-white laboratory, complete with one-way glass and antiseptic tile walls, things get interesting. As Haley lies in a coma, the young men try to piece together what befell them in the Nevada desert.

Eubank, a former cinematographer, finds his footing midway through the movie, thanks to its incredible visuals and Laurence Fishburne, who plays a stoic government type who, like his co-workers, never takes off his protective suit to risk touching "the exposed."

Signal is so determined to remain mysterious — and pack a visual punch at the movie's climax — that it withholds too much. Aside from a few flashbacks between Nick and Haley, we get nothing to flesh out our heroes, and thus really care for them. And some will see the end coming.

But give Signal credit for creating truly disturbing characters and building to a visually spectacular conclusion. And Signal is one of Hollywood's few science fiction films not about an action hero facing impossible odds to save mankind from a dystopian future.

Instead, Signal aims to get you thinking. The story can be maddening to follow, but it sure is cool to look at.